The Secret of YouTube’s Success

The New York Times, Cuban, Doug Morris and Calacanis are discussing weather YouTube is nothing by a pirate bay or not, weather it should be shut down or or not weather it’s success is earned or not, they all forget one important thing…

YouTube is not just successful because it was at the right place (MySpace) the right time (when video services became popular) with interesting content (using a hole in the copyright legislature). It was and is so successful, because:

Four technical reasons why

1. It’s obvious

Everyone understands right away, what it is and what it does why it’s cool and in how far one can directly profit from this service.

2. It’s user friendly

Everyone can use it right away without signing up or reading long texts. The user that gets into it, profits from the system right away, as he is able to put cool stuff on his website.

3. It has a brilliant marketing concept

Whoever uses YouTube actively helps promoting the service. It seems pretty easy, now that it’s there, but one had to come up with the idea first. Easy ideas are the hardest to get.

4. It is simple

Simplicity is, as easy as it seems, a pretty tough goal. It needs a lot of thought, testing, work. Kudos to Chad Hurley, the owner of YouTube for the simplicity he managed to achieve with YouTube. It is understood that we are all jealous, not just because he’s so smart, but also, because he is going to make billions soon with not much more than a simple idea, which – and people tend to forget this – is really exceptional and difficult to get to.

The main reason

The main reason though is this one: Youtube is the prototype of a democratic website. And nowadays that is the key to success.